Charlotte Higgins on culture + Benjamin Britten | The Guardianhttp://www.theguardian.com/culture/charlottehigginsblog+music/benjamin-britten
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Free download of rediscovered Britten and Auden songhttp://www.theguardian.com/culture/charlottehigginsblog/2013/jul/15/britten-auden-roman-wall-blues
Lost for 60 years, Britten's music for the Auden poem Roman Wall Blues has now been completed, published and recorded – and can be <a href="http://www.nmcrec.co.uk/roman-wall-blues">downloaded</a>, free of charge<p>My forthcoming book, <a href="http://www.guardianbookshop.co.uk/BerteShopWeb/viewProduct.do?ISBN=9780224090896">Under Another Sky</a>, is about the encounter with Roman Britain: the way people have interpreted, fantasised about and projected ideas on to the 400-year period, from the time when its physical remains began to be rediscovered until the present. Roman Britain is, I found, an intensely generative space, which has inspired poems by Housman and Owen, plays by Fletcher and Shakespeare, music by Elgar and Vaughan-Williams – not to mention centuries' worth of extraordinary scholarship.</p><p>Two artists inspired by Roman Britain were WH Auden and Benjamin Britten. In 1937, Auden's radio play Hadrian's Wall was broadcast from Newcastle, with incidental music by the composer. </p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/culture/charlottehigginsblog/2013/jul/15/britten-auden-roman-wall-blues">Continue reading...</a>CultureClassical musicMusicBooksRoman BritainWH AudenBenjamin BrittenClassics and ancient historyNorthumberlandMon, 15 Jul 2013 17:08:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/culture/charlottehigginsblog/2013/jul/15/britten-auden-roman-wall-bluesCharlotte Higgins2013-07-15T17:08:00ZBenjamin Britten syphilis claims 'ludicrous', says anaesthetisthttp://www.theguardian.com/music/charlottehigginsblog/2013/jan/25/benjamin-britten-syphilis-ludicrous-anaesthetist
Dr Edward Sumner, who was present at 1973 operation said to have uncovered tertiary syphilis, says there was no evidence<p>One of the doctors present at the heart surgery Benjamin Britten underwent three years before his death has called claims the composer had syphilis &quot;ludicrous&quot;.</p><p>The <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/9806528/Benjamin-Britten-biography-extract-was-the-composers-death-caused-by-syphilis.html" title="">claims that Britten's death was hastened by the sexually transmitted disease</a> come from a <a href="http://www.penguin.co.uk/nf/Book/BookDisplay/0,,9780141924304,00.html" title="">new biography by Paul Kildea</a>, which suggests that when the presiding cardiothoracic surgeon opened Britten up in the summer of 1973 he found &quot;the aorta was riddled with tertiary syphilis&quot;.</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/music/charlottehigginsblog/2013/jan/25/benjamin-britten-syphilis-ludicrous-anaesthetist">Continue reading...</a>Benjamin BrittenClassical musicMusicSexual healthHealthSocietyUK newsFri, 25 Jan 2013 12:45:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/music/charlottehigginsblog/2013/jan/25/benjamin-britten-syphilis-ludicrous-anaesthetistErich Auerbach/Getty ImagesBenjamin Britten. The claims that his death was hastened by syphilis are contained in a new biography by Paul Kildea. Photograph: Erich Auerbach/Getty ImagesErich Auerbach/Getty ImagesBenjamin Britten. The claims that his death was hastened by syphilis are contained in a new biography by Paul Kildea. Photograph: Erich Auerbach/Getty ImagesCharlotte Higgins2013-01-25T12:45:00ZA new era for the Aldeburgh festivalhttp://www.theguardian.com/culture/charlottehigginsblog/2009/apr/29/classicalmusicandopera-suffolk
A £16m development at Snape Maltings could help propel Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears's festival into an an exciting fresh phase<p>A word more on <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2009/apr/29/aldeburgh-festival-creative-campus">the &pound;16m new development</a> for <a href="http://www.aldeburgh.co.uk/home.cfm?flash_detected=YES&amp;mainframe_file=/home/index.cfm">Aldeburgh Music</a> at Snape in Suffolk – collectively to be known as the Hoffmann Building, and including a 340-seat hall (The Britten Studio); the Jerwood Kiln Studio, which can acccommodate 340; and smaller practice/dressing rooms, a box office, and a social space (named after Janet Baker – the Bakery).</p><p>The point of the spaces is that Aldeburgh Music – the organisation that runs the annual, brilliant Aldeburgh festival, and that this year welcomes a new artistic director in <a href="http://www.warnerclassicsandjazz.com/artistbiography.php?artist=2575">Pierre-Laurent Aimard</a> – now has a decent size room for orchestral rehearsals, and a cluster of spaces to which artists can come year-round as residents to take time out to rehearse intensively, try out fresh ideas or work with new people. To give more of a sense of community on this &quot;creative campus&quot; Aldeburgh Music has also bought an old people's home (!) in Aldeburgh itself and converted it into accommodation for artists (though one suspects that the <a href="http://www.aldeburgh-crosskeys.co.uk/">Cross Keys</a> pub is where the real sense of community will continue to flower); and there will be an artists' caf&eacute; on-site at Snape.</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/culture/charlottehigginsblog/2009/apr/29/classicalmusicandopera-suffolk">Continue reading...</a>CultureStageClassical musicSuffolkBenjamin BrittenWed, 29 Apr 2009 10:31:50 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/culture/charlottehigginsblog/2009/apr/29/classicalmusicandopera-suffolk/Philip VileA creative campus: The new Britten studio at Snape Maltings, Suffolk Photograph: Philip Vile/Philip VileA creative campus: The new Britten studio at Snape Maltings, Suffolk Photograph: Philip VileCharlotte Higgins2009-04-29T10:31:50Z